


Prince Charred

by shutupjeff



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 20:25:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/777642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shutupjeff/pseuds/shutupjeff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on Prince Charred, it’s time to help you find your Cinderella.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The name really didn’t do much to pay respect to Derek’s fallen family or ease his less than soft personality. And sure, the Hale family had sort of been viewed as Wolf Royalty. Accuracy aside, the first time someone called him that within earshot, Derek had come the closest to literally seeing red that any Beta ever can.

Needless to say, the offending omega had taken several days to heal from Derek’s wrath. However, the name stuck.

Derek winced as the name reached him for the first time in almost a year. Derek was reading aloud news from an underground source for werewolves that Stiles would probably kill him for neglecting to mention in hopes of discovering why the Alpha Pack was here.

PRINCE CHARRED’S TRIAL BY FIRE

            All of our kind remembers the intrigue surrounding the devastating Hale House Fire and the tragedy that occurred that day. The mystery was recently solved by an account sent yesterday from the Hale’s own anti-hero, Uncle Peter.

Derek’s furious snarl echoed in the hidden subway station as he turned to Peter for explanation.

“You went behind my back.” Derek accused.

“Yes.” Peter replied, unblinking and unapologetic. The face devoid of emotion reminded Derek of his uncle’s face when explaining how he’d murdered Laura. Derek did his best to control the shiver that threatened to shoot down his spine.

“Why.”

“Underneath the madness that controlled me before, I was always trying to set things right. I sent for the …” Derek cut him off.

“You called them here? They’re monsters! Tools of corruption wielded by the corrupt or sent to run amok. They are nothing more than beasts!”

“Beasts can be tamed.” Peter said as though it was a saying repeated many times, almost a mantra. “Your knowledge of our kind is remarkably limited. Your parents had only begun to teach you. Let me explain the holes.”

Derek made a sound of protest but Peter ignored it. “You’ll need to know this to prevent disaster.”

Derek glared but motioned for Peter to continue.

“First you need to understand the Alpha Pack. Centuries ago, unmated alphas with no packs joined together and ran wild, slaughtering untold victims in their path, unable to control their power. With the number of victims climbing sharply, a newly made alpha sought to prevent our exposure by finding his true mate.”

“What do you mean true mate?” Derek asked, annoying Peter with the interruption.

“While most alphas find partners that they mimic the mate-bond with, a true mate is connected to the alpha long before the sexual part of mating occurs. The true-mate bond is powerful but it is incredibly hard to find a true mate as each alpha has only one. True mates could be worlds apart. The alpha hoped that with his true mate, he could control the unchecked alpha pack.

“Lucky for us, he was right. With the help of his True Mate, the first True Alpha demanded obedience from the alpha pack and used them to control the thousands of newly made werewolves. Unfortunately, the True Alpha’s rise to power was too late to avoid the consequences of the alpha pack’s rampage. A family rose to power, gaining knowledge of all things paranormal. Decades later they made an assassination attempt on the True Alpha, mortally wounding him with a silver sword drenched in wolfsbane.  The family believed the True Alpha was responsible for the slaughters, especially that of the family’s matriarch. Revenge was their only goal.

“After the death of the first True Alpha, his power fell to his True Mate. Motivated by grief and desire to protect the pack, the True Mate led to alpha pack in ousting the family from power and into hiding less than a year after the True Alpha’s murder. After that, the True Mate disappeared and was never heard from again. Control of the alpha pack fell to a relative and was passed down the line

“Over the years, the family has conscripted many to their cause. Hunters. The alpha pack has continued their duty of seeking out these hunters in an attempt to discover the identity of the family and end the feud once and for all.

“After the death of the most recent True Alpha, the alpha back bound themselves with the aid of a shaman to prevent their wolves from being fully unleashed until the rise of the next True Alpha. So, Derek, they are not monsters. They are warriors waiting for their leader to command them. An event for which they are still waiting.

“As they wait, hunters have come out of the darkness. This you already know, but it isn’t just here. Hunters everywhere are waging war on our kind. The alpha pack is relatively defenseless without being about to transform into full wolves. They’ve been saving their strength for the event that the family reveals themselves. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Before I explain that, I need to tell you what I know about the fire and  Kate.”

Derek’s head hung in shame at the mention of his greatest mistake. Peter knew.

“Yes, Derek I knew you were with her. The whole family did. But what I need you to understand is that the fire wasn’t your fault. Gerard supplied his daughter with a form of engineered wolfsbane created to mimic the mate-bond. We would have discovered it sooner, but your obsessive de-scenting after spending time with her made it impossible to discover who she was, let alone what she was doing to you. Your mother thought you were shy about your first love and convinced us all to pretend not to notice when you disappeared for hours at a time.

“The day of the fire, you must have been a little careless or perhaps Kate wanted us to be aware of our fate once it was too late to avoid. Either way, when your father picked up the scent of wolfsbane in your room, the house was suddenly flooded with a gas form of wolfsbane and then the flames started.”

Peter shivered as the memories threatened to drag him back to madness as his sister tried to claw her way through the fog of death to protect her True Mate. He forced his mind to shift focus and continue his explanation.

“When I awoke years later, I should have connected the dots but my mind was already gone to the wolf. As wild as the alpha’s of old.” Another shiver rippled through Peter.

“After the warehouse, it all fell into place. The entire scheme seemed to play itself out before my eyes. In his reckless act of self-preservation, Gerard exposed the family as his own. But he’s more powerful than the alpha pack could have anticipated. If their still bound when Gerard returns, they’ll fall and so will the rest of us.”

Peter fell silent as the weight of the knowledge hit Derek.

“Wait, if they can’t win against Gerard, why are they here?”

Peter just gave Derek his sassiest, bitch please look.

“They’re searching for the next True Alpha?” Derek said with a mountain load of uncertainty.

“No, we all know who it is, Derek. We just need to find the True Mate.”

“What?”

Peter’s tired of Derek pretending not to understand to delay the inevitable.

“Come on Prince Charred, it’s time to help you find your Cinderella.”


	2. Charming's Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Derek gets grumpy and Stiles is awesome.

Derek was distracted by the sheer volume of what Peter told him. They knew. His whole family knew he was to blame for their deaths. No wonder Peter had tried to kill him after rising from the dead, well the first time. And now he was just supposed to forget the detailed recounting of his family’s murder and run off to find love? Life just didn’t make sense.

He emerged from the depth of his thoughts with the sound of a door slamming as Peter walked out of their hideout. Derek scrambled to catch up with him. Even after Peter had helped solve things with Jackson, something still seemed off. Deaton had said Peter would pay a price for rising from the dead and Derek had a feeling Peter would do his best to trick someone into paying that price for him. The story Peter told just didn’t fit. Why would the alpha pack follow him? He’d certainly made a mess of things as an Alpha. Jackson’s rampage was clear evidence of that. Peter was still keeping things from him, and Derek’s wolf didn’t like it.

Derek slowed to lengthened strides when Peter came back into view, refusing to run after his subordinate. When Peter was in arm’s reach, Derek grabbed the pack of his leather coat and threw him in a high arc, slamming him down against the concrete wall of an abandoned building. Peter shook his head as drops of blood clouded his vision. The wounds had already begun to heal but the pain still throbbed in his head. Derek watched as Peter struggled to stand again.

“You’re not my alpha Uncle; you’re not anyone’s alpha anymore. I lead. You follow.”

“But you don’t know where we need to go.” Peter replied, rolling his eyes.

“Whose fault is that?”

Peter just shrugged and continued to walk away, stepping ahead of Derek. Eyes flashed red and Peter was thrown harder this time.

“Don’t test me Uncle.”

Peter nodded, sassy attitude suppressed for the sake of pack order. He hadn’t meant to cause a fight, but it’s hard to view the little boy who’s soiled sheets he’d changed every morning for several years was now his boss. Peter didn’t need to be the leader of a pack. He just needed to belong to a pack rich with tradition and abounding in strength and intellect. The fire had robbed him of that, robbed him of so much, robbed _them_ of so much. At least now he could start to mend what was shattered.

“We need to go meet the alpha pack. They’re waiting.”

“You know where they are?” Derek tried to control his strained temper.

“Yes. It’s time you learned the fate of your runaways.”

Derek’s eyes flashed red again. It’d had been three weeks since they’d last been seen and the mark had been scratched into the old Hale House door. Three weeks of fitful nights and days spent searching for traces of their scents.

“How long have you known?” Derek demanded, furious that his Uncle let him suffer for so long.

“Since this morning, Derek. The pack wanted me to explain things to you first. There’s much to be done before everyone arrives.”

Derek scowled at Peter’s cryptic words, but his wolf insisted on tended to his pups before he strangled out all of the secrets Peter was hiding.

“Where.” It wasn’t really a question. At least it didn’t sound that way escaping between teeth clenched together so tightly they could ground diamonds to powder.

“Home.” Peter said, gesturing for Derek to lead the way.

___

As it turns out, crappy old Jeeps still move faster than sprinting alphas because Derek had slammed his laptop shut and declared that Stiles was driving them to the creepy Hale house. Stiles demanded they exit via the door instead of the wolf-preferred window and slapped Derek’s hand when he reached to open the driver’s side door.

“I have better reflexes. I can driver faster and safer.”

“Technically you can’t drive at all because your-sexy-as-hell car got bombed by the Argents. So you’ll sit in the passenger seat and use your wolvihood to keep your stalker pedobear uncle from trying to get me to play into his disgusting blood kink.”

Peter glares at Stiles and backs away from them both.

“Yeah I’m talking to you Captain Bad Touch. Don’t think I haven’t done enough research to know what biting someone on the wrist does.”

Derek immediately starts to wolf out, unsure why exactly he’s so angry but his wolf doesn’t feel the need to explain.

Seeing red eyes and having already reached his blood loss quota for the day, Peter dashed away. Derek can meet the alpha pack on his own.

Stiles looks unfazed at Derek’s beta form face.

“Shift back. I don’t want you to shed in my car.” The dog joke shifts Derek’s emotions from pure anger to irritation making the shift back effortless.

“Keep it up with the dog jokes and I’ll start eating your homework.”

“Good luck with that. I do it all on my laptop now. You might not know that seeing as you’re a hundred years older than me.”

Derek just let his teeth elongate in response.

“No! Not Lil’ Mac! I just got over using a PC.”

“You named your laptop Lil’ Mac?” Derek said with derision dripping from his words.

“At least I live in a house with running water. You know if you don’t shower you’ll end up giving me your fleas.”

Derek gnashed his teeth and Stiles gasped at his mistake. “I’m sorry I take it back!”

Appeased, Derek rolled his eyes and waited for Stiles to hit the road.

—

Even Stiles heard the commotion coming from the old Hale property long before it came into view. As Derek stepped out of the car everyone stopped what they were doing. A group of twenty or so wolves (Derek could tell by their smell) formed together and fell to one knee. Derek had no idea why they were kneeling or how to get them to stop so he turned to Stiles for direction. Unfortunately yet predictably, Stiles wasn’t paying attention to the matter at hand. Instead he was squinting at a figure in the distance, lifting a load of metal beyond human capability. The figure neared and Derek immediately recognized the scent.

He abandoned the kneeling wolves and hurdled towards her, capturing her in a bear hug – or a wolf hug. Derek ignored the sound of the metal clanging loudly as he let his wolf rejoice in the safety of his pack.

“What the fuck Derek? If I broke a nail, I’ll kill you.” Derek smirked as several of the wolves, now standing, snarled at Erica’s threat. It was just her way of saying hello.

“You’re not leaving again. I don’t care how bad it gets. You are not an Omega. You’re pack.” Derek says in his growly alpha voice. 

“I think that’s the most emotional thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Scott jokes as he walks up with a similar bundle of metal resting on one arm. He leans over and scoops up Erica’s pile and lets the two of them have their moment. Derek pushes some of Erica’s curls out of the way to see the werewolves back at work and Stiles standing with Boyd looking out over the property.

Derek released his hold on Erica, but kept his arm around her as he returned to Stiles to greet Boyd. As they walked, Derek finally noticed what was going on around the property. The old husk of his house was gone, the dungeon and basement where Peter had burned and Kate had tortured him was gone. A foundation was being poured. The dimensions looked bigger and it seemed more than two floors would rest below ground level. Surprisingly, only two trees had been torn down and the grass around the construction area was being preserved by a raised platform leading to the foundation.

Erica departed to join Scott, Isaac, and Jackson, leaving Derek to talk with Boyd and Stiles. Boyd gave Derek and awkward hug while Stiles walked away mumbling something about “bringing him in on the plans sooner. I mean seriously if anyone knows security and the supernatural…” Derek and Boyd smiled as Stiles began chewing out one of the werewolves that was apparently in charge of the whole operation.

Boyd moved to sit on hood of the Jeep and Derek followed, listening as Boyd recounted the last few weeks. After Chris Argent had helped them escape, the Alphas had talked sense into the pair. The lone wolf dies alone. Boyd was strong, but if even Allison could get the best of him, Gerard would steam roll over him. The alpha pack demanded that Boyd and Erica join them as they chased off Gerard. They couldn’t destroy him, but they could chase him off. After a week of chasing him past the Mississippi, the pack had begun to train the pair on the way home to Beacon Hills and utilized their connections to get things started in Beacon Hills.

The Hale Property had been condemned and fallen into state property. Using Erica’s connections and the alpha pack’s overflowing bank accounts, the property had been purchased in Derek’s name and construction had begun. Boyd had worked with several of the alphas to figure out a way to finish in just three more weeks, less than a month total. The rest of Derek’s pack had been brought in on the plan when it had been decided that only wolves, and those who know of wolves, would be allowed on the property.

Stiles walked up as Boyd was explaining the basic plans for the house.

“No offense Boyd but you suck. I mean seriously, how do you expect a titanium gate to stop a horde of angry witches or zombies or enemy werewolves? Even the Argents could get around it.” Derek looked down at the flyer describing the security gate that would go on the road leading up to the house. It cost over six figures and looked more than capable of keeping zombies out, even if they didn’t exist.

“Luckily I cancelled the order in time for a full refund.” Stiles said though no one was listening. Boyd was laughing at the annoyed look on the alpha’s face that Stiles had just berated.

“Looks like you’re not making any new friends Stiles.”

“Yeah well I have enough friends.” Stiles replied, nudging Boyd. “I already called Lydia, Deaton, and Danny. The security of this property will be personally designed by my team of experts not some hack alpha.”

“I still don’t understand why we need so much security?” Derek said. “I’m not one to hide behind walls.”

Stiles sharpened his face and looked straight into Derek’s eyes. “This isn’t just for you Derek. Humans died in that fire. Helpless children burned alive. I won’t let anyone get you or anyone close to you. Everyone needs a home. Some place safe.”

Boyd’s eyes shot from Stiles to Derek and shifted uncomfortably at the tension between them. “Besides, the other wolves will feel more comfortable if it’s secure.”

“Yeah well I don’t really care if a band of crazy alpha’s is comfortable in my home or not.” Derek says glaring at the closest alpha with distrust.

At his words, Peter walked into the clearing. “Boyd isn’t talking about the alphas Derek.”

Derek’s glare focuses on Peter as the wolf forces Derek to stand between his uncle and his pack.

“Come on Derek. The Prince can’t find Cinderella without the ball.”


End file.
